The present invention relates generally to a method and apparatus for applying a liquid product to a floor. In particular, the invention relates to applying a thickened liquid floor product to a floor.
A variety of liquid products are applied onto the surface of a floor to provide proper care. One such product is a stripper that removes floor finish already applied on the floor. Such strippers typically have a low viscosity, e.g. 200 cps or less. Traditional floor strippers are applied and distributed on the floor surface with a conventional string mop and bucket. While effective, the use of mops in the stripping process has several undesirable outcomes, including placing stripper on surfaces perpendicular to the floor, such as walls and baseboards, and extensive clean-up time required to rinse residual stripper solution from the mop.
Additional issues associated with applying stripper onto a floor using a conventional mop occur when applying thickened strippers. Thickened strippers typically have a viscosity between approximately 300 and approximately 1,000 cps and provide advantages over lower viscosity strippers. Because such thickened stripper products do not readily flow, they are not as easily applied using a string mop. For instance, mop lines are easily visible on the floor and the areas where the stripper is more thinly applied do not strip as effectively. Additionally, because thickened strippers are typically more viscous, it is difficult to get the thickened stripper into tight spaces such as corners and edges using a conventional mop, without getting the thickened stripper on vertical surfaces such as baseboards and walls. Applying thickened strippers with a string mop is also an ergonomic challenge. If a string mop is utilized, the mop becomes quite heavy and can weigh up to 20 pounds when wet. Further, there is a significant amount of “mop drag” and the mop is only able to dispense approximately three pounds of the thickened stripper before it is necessary to dip the string mop back into the bucket to obtain more thickened stripper.
There is thus a need in the art for an applicator that overcomes the extensive clean-up time, undesirable placement of stripper, ergonomic issues, and leveling problems associated with string mop applications.